Apple wins round in Nokia patent fight

One judge has ruled Apple's iPhone does not infringe on Nokia's mobile patents.
Josh Miller/CNET

A judge with the U.S. International Trade Commission said today that Apple is not in violation of five of Nokia's patents.

Nokia filed a series of suits against Apple in 2009, accusing the company of infringing on 17 patents related to wireless handsets that Apple had refused to license. Nokia asked the ITC that Apple be banned from importing the offending devices. Apple countersued, charging Nokia with infringing 13 Apple patents related to the iPhone.

ITC Judge James Gildea made the initial determination that Apple had not infringed on Nokia's patents, Reuters reported today. It's not the final decision, however. The entire ITC has to either agree to uphold Gildea's determination, or throw it out at a hearing later this summer.

It's been a busy day for Apple on the legal front. Just hours earlier the ITC agreed it would review Kodak's claims that Apple and RIM are infringing on image-previewing patents in mobile devices.